Pérez-Llorca has launched operations in Abu Dhabi, becoming the first Ibero-American law firm to establish a physical presence in the emirate.
The new office is located in ADGM, Abu Dhabi’s international financial center, and will be led by Gonçalo Capela Godinho, a Pérez-Llorca partner with nearly 25 years of international experience across cross-border transactions, Latin America and New York.
The ADGM opening gives the Spanish-founded firm a direct base in one of the Gulf’s most active financial hubs at a time when Middle Eastern institutional capital is playing a larger role in global dealmaking.
Bridging Gulf Capital and Global Markets
Pérez-Llorca said the Abu Dhabi office is designed to support relationships with major financial players in the Middle East and help investors access markets where the firm already operates, including Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Colombia and Peru.
The office will also work with the firm’s Portuguese-speaking Africa practice, which is coordinated from Lisbon, and with professionals in London, New York, Brussels and Singapore.
In an earlier January announcement, Pérez-Llorca said the Abu Dhabi office was intended as a platform for relationship-building, origination and execution, especially for Gulf investors pursuing overseas investment projects.
ADGM’s Role in the Expansion
ADGM’s growth has continued into 2026. In May, the financial center’s active licenses reached 13,353 in the first quarter, while assets under management rose 57%, highlighting Abu Dhabi’s growing appeal to global financial firms.
The legal and advisory ecosystem around ADGM has expanded alongside that financial growth, giving international firms a stronger reason to place senior teams closer to Abu Dhabi’s capital markets and investment community.
Pérez-Llorca’s arrival fits into that wider pattern, adding a legal bridge for clients moving capital between the Gulf, Iberia, Latin America and other international markets.
A Broader International Expansion
The Abu Dhabi launch adds another international foothold to Pérez-Llorca’s cross-border platform, extending the firm’s reach into a region that has become increasingly important for global capital flows.
Pérez-Llorca’s office list now includes Abu Dhabi alongside Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon, London, Brussels, New York, Singapore, Bogotá, Medellín, Mexico City and Monterrey.
Pedro Pérez-Llorca, the firm’s senior partner, framed the Abu Dhabi launch as a long-term strategic step linked to the region’s growing role in global investment flows.
The Gulf’s Growing Legal Pull
The launch is also a signal of how global law firms are repositioning around capital corridors rather than only around traditional legal markets. Pérez-Llorca is not presenting Abu Dhabi as a standalone outpost, but as a bridge between Gulf investors and jurisdictions where the firm has local legal capacity.
That approach is consistent with Pérez-Llorca’s January statement, which said the Abu Dhabi office was not intended to build a local Middle East legal practice, but to bring the firm closer to international capital sources investing in markets where Pérez-Llorca has local-law capabilities.
Abu Dhabi’s expanding financial and advisory ecosystem gives Pérez-Llorca’s arrival added significance, bringing an Ibero-American presence to ADGM’s professional-services base and strengthening legal links between the Gulf, Iberia, Latin America and Lusophone Africa.
